If there's one piece of advice I can give to fic writers who feel discouraged by the "content creation" culture and lack of community engagement in modern fandom, it's to try writing for an audience of one.

And I don't mean write for yourself!

Find one weirdo friend that enjoys sharing ideas with you, and write fanfiction for them. Get to know their taste, and tailor your writing to it. One person who will message you while reading your stuff and want to discuss it deeply and dig into and challenge your ideas - they will give you more creative satisfaction than a hundred vague, vacant comments of praise.

Maybe some other folks will end up reading and enjoying your work! If they do, they will probably have more in-depth things to say, too, because you'll be writing deeply on a specific set of concepts, not creating broadly palatable, derivative, marketable drivel meant to appeal to a large audience.

And if no one else reads it, you'll still have that one weird friend.

Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.

when the drair covers the dreyes...

His beloved sueño :]

I replied to your message in my head several days ago did you not get it

Had a man from tinder come at me with every ounce of audacity he could find today and like??? Fuck this sign me up for dying alone cause what the actual hell is the point of this 💀

Hand on the gass

Lazy lazy

it’s so weird to me how there’s cliques and hierarchies within fandom spaces these days like. we’re all just fucking nerds. how are you gonna try to be popular amongst the nerds. how are you going to feel superior over your fellow nerds. at the end of the day you’re still a fucking nerd bestie

He had no right to be serving cunt in his warehouse bathroom

people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333

Maybe twt fandom wouldn't be so dead if they didn't bully the fan artists and fic writers for thinking out of the box -huffy pouts-

so glad for the freedom of tumblr and the etiquette built here over the years that emphasizes 'stay in ur lane' and 'trying to police fandom just gets a pillow put over ur face while the rest of us carry on'

yeah

anyway the actual point of fandom is to inspire each other. reading each other's fics and admiring each other's art and saying wow i love this and i feel something and i want to invoke this in other people, i want to write a sentence that feels like a meteor shower, i want to paint a kiss with such tenderness it makes you ache, i want to create something that someone else somewhere will see it and think oh, i need to do that too, right now. i am embracing being a corny cunt on main to say inspiring each other is one of the things humanity is best at and one of the things fandom is built for and i think that's beautiful

I'm in a bad mood, so to make myself happy here are some fics I've been enjoying in the last few months, in no particular order. Some of these are incomplete. Please read tags on each individual story before reading <3

The Remedy to Everything - by @simply-smitten - this is such a good fic. When I was betaing months and months ago before this even came out, I told Smitten that this is going to be a new classic. She told me the ending last night and I am GATEKEEPING

Warm, Like Starlight - also by Smitten. She's like, talented or whatever. (this is a joke, I love Smitten)

Every Mountain Tells a Story by @czargasm - you know those AUs where you get sucked in and you know you're reading something by an expert? Yeah, that's this fic. And also it's just plain good. Still updating, but get in on this one early

Our Own Terrible Way by Chelsey Czargasm - this is epic. ANF to DNF pipeline is so believable and Chelsey really pulls it off. Good smut, good jealous, good banter. What more do you want?

what if we just by @alittledizzy - GUYS! When I read this it hit me so hard, like a truck, this fic was so necessary and so needed and it was like a balm to my soul (as many dizzy fics are and have been for many many years, yeah I have loved her a long time)

soft sunlight & soothed dogs by wooowriter - have I ever cared much for hybrid fics before? no, not really. Do I care now? Yeah, and it's this fic's fault. Realistic world building, realistic feelings. It's good shit.

fucked up and down bad by Dizzy and Alison, my home dogs. I got to beta read this one and I screamed the entire way through. It's so good. I really enjoyed it!

In Safety There is Bravery by @gottagetshiver - i just-- yeah. I liked this one, what can I say? Shiver is awesome and this fic is too.

going through the motions by @hardtofindneuro - neuro has to be next to Shiver, that's just the way the world works. This fic is good so good but extra warning to take the tags seriously. Neuro always hits that angst HARD, but it's definitely worth it <3

Okay I have to go back to work so I'll add more later :D